This week’s theme
A change of character: Act II

This week’s words
ideocracy
androgenous


Wordsmith Games

🧩	Jigsaw Riddle Fountain That Grows
🌍	Langitude Trace homburg home

A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(an-DROJ-uh-nuhs)

MEANING:

adjective: Producing only or predominantly male offspring.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek andro- (male) + -genous (producing). Earliest documented use: 1750s.

NOTES:

Last week’s androgynous describes a mixture of male and female characteristics; today’s androgenous applies to something that produces only or predominantly male offspring. They sound alike and differ by one letter, but that one letter changes the whole family.

USAGE:

“It has been suggested that a high pre-conceptual [before conception] waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) is a good predictor of male offspring and, thus, in cultures that value male children, an androgenous body shape may be judged as most attractive.”
M.J. Tovée et al.; Maternal Waist-to-Hip Ratio Does Not Predict Child Gender; Proceedings of the Royal Society B; May 22, 2001.

See more usage examples of androgenous in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: